From data rationales to data infrastructure: Implications for the BBNJ clearing-house mechanism

Data plays a crucial dual role for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) - the BBNJ Agreement. While data underpins much of the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement and provisions related to all four package elements, the Agreement itself will also shape how data is governed, particularly through the Clearing-House Mechanism (ClHM), its data infrastructure. This article analyses the implications of the BBNJ process for data governance in ABNJ by looking into the discussions on ‘data’ within the negotiation room, particularly those on the design of the ClHM. To conceptualize this process, we introduce the concept of ‘data rationales’ describing the expectations, understandings and interests expressed by different actors in relation to data. These data rationales are validated, reinforced, and reproduced through the making of the ClHM, the data infrastructure of BBNJ that shapes the overarching data rationality for data governance in ABNJ. Drawing on observation data from the BBNJ negotiations, we identified 835 observations where ‘data’ was referenced. Through an iterative and inductive coding process, these observations were categorized into ten ‘BBNJ Data Rationales’. We further analyzed how these rationales interact in discussions on the design of ClHM and identified twelve key questions to inform the ongoing negotiations. We argue that the BBNJ process provides a unique opportunity to shape more equitable data governance in ABNJ by enabling actors to articulate and negotiate their priorities among competing data rationales in the design of the ClHM.